Big ship makes small mistake on Carnival date

PROVINCETOWN — The largest cruise ship of the summer docked in the harbor for two days Thursday Aug. 15, a week before the Carnival parade, which was not the original intention.

Vacaya, a new LGBTQ-plus travel company, planned its inaugural cruise with the 965-foot Celebrity Summit to be in town for the parade, which they thought was Aug. 15. The parade, however, is Aug. 22, a week later.

The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based travel company found out they had the incorrect date six weeks after they started advertising the tour, said Randle Roper, chief executive officer and co-founder of Vacaya. At that point, he said, the 200 to 300 passengers who had booked trips were all informed in a letter in July 2018 that in fact, they would be coming to Provincetown pre-Carnival.

“We had only one person cancel because they really wanted to see the parade,” Roper said.

As it turned out, Roper added, the trip still filled up with 1,800 guests. The customers were happy to be in town when it was not such a zoo, he said. Thousands of people pack Provincetown to watch the Carnival parade.

“We were disappointed for about three days” and then they realized it was for the best, Roper said.

Exactly how the error was made is not quite clear. Roper said someone from town, he did not know who, gave the tour company the wrong date. Harbormaster/Pier Manager Rex McKinsey said the company made the mistake.

The Carnival parade date is confusing. Last year it fell on Aug. 16, the third Thursday in August. But this year, it lands on the fourth Thursday.

Bob Sanborn, executive director of the Provincetown Business Guild, explained that Carnival week is defined as the third Wednesday in August.

“The parade happens on Thursday, so a lot of people think it’s the third Thursday, but it’s not,” he said. “The PBG board voted in the mid-90s to standardize it, because automatic booking software was just becoming popular, and everyone needed clarity around when Carnival would actually be. If you define Carnival week as a certain Monday or a Sunday or even a Thursday, sometimes you run into issues where Carnival becomes too close to Labor Day, or it falls on the calendar too early or too late. So it’s been the third Wednesday for at least 30 years now.”

After the error, the PBG staff worked hard to create “some opening ceremonies for Carnival that could happen on Thursday the 15th,” Sanborn said.

“The Carnival opening ceremonies were previously on Sunday, but we did move them forward to Thursday — there were a lot of parties happening all weekend long that were before the kickoff, so we thought moving the kickoff forward was a good idea.”

The opening ceremony outside the Crown Anchor included the unveiling of the 100-foot section of 1.25-mile-long Gilbert Baker’s 25th anniversary rainbow flag. There were other events at night at the Crown Anchor and the Shipwreck Lounge.

Vacaya passenger Conrad Zeutenhorst, of Washington D.C., said he skipped those events to go to Club Purgatory. Overall, he said the trip “has been wonderful. It’s been a great cruise.”

Other passengers were also pleased with their journey, which started in New Jersey, and went to Canada and Maine before coming to Provincetown. But many passengers believed the town actually had moved the date of the Carnival parade by a week in order to avoid the extra 2,000 people on the cruise ship.

“We heard it was moved because they didn’t want there to be so many people on the island,” said Mike Franklin, a passenger from North Carolina.

Two other passengers, who would not give their names, said they know the townies don’t like cruise ships and that, they theorized, is why the town switched the parade time.

The PBG did not change the parade time, but it is true that many people don’t like cruise ships. For this reason, McKinsey said, the Provincetown Pier Corp. tries to attract the smaller cruise ships, those carrying 150 to 200 people, who tend to be upscale clientele looking for activities to do on land. These vessels, ranging from 267 to 400-feet in length dominate the cruise ship schedule this summer. About 14 of the 19 cruise ships coming to town this year are under 400 feet, according to the harbormaster’s office.

The 650-foot Seabourn Quest will dock here four times. And then there is the Celebrity Summit, which at 965 feet is the largest ship of the summer. It’s also the biggest ship to dock overnight in Provincetown’s history, Roper said.

But, McKinsey said, it’s actually just a moderately-sized cruise ship. Big ships are 4,000 to 6,000-feet long. These floating mega hotels are not something Provincetown wants to see in the harbor, he added.

To be clear, not everyone dislikes cruise ships.

“The parking lots are full; the only way to get more people here is by sea and by air,” said Carol Kambar, owner of the Shell Shop. “We get business from every group of people that comes to town. Especially being near the pier, people who arrive by sea are great for us.”

Banner Correspondent Paul Benson contributed to this report.